A webinar conducted by EQ magazine on the 2nd of February sponsored by Sungrow Power Supply & Co. Ltd. discussed the trends in captive solar projects in Gujarat.
The webinar was conducted by EQ International Magazine on the topic “Gujarat- Trends in solar captive” was sponsored by Sungrow Power Supply and Co. Ltd. It included discussion over the present opportunities and future of captive energy. This webinar was moderated by Hardik Vyas, Sr. Manager (Business Development), Enerparc Energy Pvt. Ltd.
States have been promoting investments in the solar sector, given its low price of generation and ongoing technological improvements. Gujarat has been the pioneer in renewable energy deployment in India and therefore, its RE policies tend to become a benchmark for the policy-makers in other states. The focus of Gujrat, however, is divergent. It primarily aims to manage the solar-based sales migration.
What does the future of Captive energy hold?
In Gujrat, no capacity restrictions are applicable for residential, captive and third-party projects. Removal of restrictions has provided more flexibility in capacity sizing and widened the opportunity of investing in behind-the-meter storage options. Earlier, the cap of 50% of contracted demand applied to all consumers other than MSME enterprises.
A captive plant of which only a consumer having 100% ownership of SPS (Solar Power System) shall be considered as ‘captive’ use. So, anyone having less than 100% ownership of SPS may become liable to pay cross-subsidy surcharge (CSS) and additional surcharge (AS).
Hardik Vyas, moderator of the webinar said, “Captive has different definitions for different states if we talk about Gujarat captive in Gujarat is defined as something like electricity for self, used within the premise or outside, but the ownership of the consumer should be 100%, which is a mandatory condition.”
“Captive market is growing differently in Gujarat. It keeps on giving growth. On one hand, there is a very restricted policy while on the other hand, it is still generating profit.” Jatin Sharma, Assistant Manager Channel Sales, Sungrow Power Supply & Co. Ltd. said.
On the question of why do, the Gujrat is in the favour of captive so much, instead of the more restrictions in the policy than the other states. Karan Dangayach, Managing Director, Shashwat Cleantech gave a few reasons and said, “First of all Gujarat is a heavily industrialized state. It has more industries than any other state. It has a strong infrastructure in terms of power too. Also, there is an ease in financing on a solar captive project. Earlier, ground-mounts were being ignored but now with the rooftops, ground-mounts are also used for captive plants.”
Banking is a service that allows renewable energy-based open access and captive users to inject excess energy at a particular time, and draw it at a later time for a pre-specified charge. Earlier, Gujarat allowed the banking of energy within one billing cycle of the consumer. The policy allows for the surplus energy, not used by the consumer after set off, to be compensated6 by the government at reasonable rates. The policy also has prohibitive banking charges. It sets a banking charge of ₹ 1.50 per unit for demand-based consumers and ₹ 1.10 per unit on solar energy consumed, rather than solar energy banked.
Kunj Shah, CMD, Zodiac Energy Ltd. shared his views and said that if the Solar policy 2015 and 2021 are compared, there are many differences. Earlier, the solar capacity was less but now the energy can be used more if properly planned. When the policy was introduced, people were scared but now it has been accepted along with the banking charges. He also suggested that the power loss should be salvaged by increasing the energy set-off hours which are 7 am to 6 pm.
Group captive also covers wind-solar hybrid projects. But consumers are less attracted to the group captive than the wind solo or solar solo captive. To make it a big thing private investors could play a big role, said Manan Thakkar, Managing Director, Prozeal Infra Engineering Pvt. Ltd.
On the increase in BCD, he presumed that the first quarter of the next financial year will be very tough in terms of pricing because the production of modules is lesser than the consumption in India.
There is enough growth in captive solar sector but there are also many challenges in the present scenario, which was not the case couple of years ago. Panellists felt that it would be better if there is a borderline framework across India. Then, it would be easy to do business.
